News World’s Most
News World’s Most Advanced Digital Cable TV System Comes Closer Dr Peter Siebert, DVB Executive Director The Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB) association is at IFA to talk about secondgeneration cable — specifically, the world’s most advanced digitalcable TV system, DVB-C2. DVB-C2 will initially be used for the delivery of innovative new services, such as videoon-demand (VOD) and HD TV, helping digital operators to remain competitive while meeting retransmission requirements. DVB consists of 233 members, including broadcasters, manufacturers, network operators and regulatory bodies like Ofcom in the UK. DVB Executive Director Dr Peter Siebert spent the last decade developing and implementing the secondgeneration DVB standard. “Clearly we are living in a very different world and, of course, the CE and IT industries need common standards in order to allow them to generate economies of scale,” he said. Responding to increased consumer demand for a broader range of digital TV services, cable operators will be looking to upgrade their networks even more. Hall 11.1 Stand 11 German DAB+ Gives Digital Radio a Boost On September 1 st , Germany enacted the new DAB+ digitalradio standard and, at IFA, digital-radio manufacturers are lining up to enter the digital radio race. Digital Audio Broadcasting Plus is an extension of the DAB standard that the radio operators, device manufacturers and dealers will use to jump start digital radio in Germany. The previous DAB standard faltered in Germany, lacking sufficient programming and efficient receivers (energywise). The advantages of DAB+ include better quality, more radio stations, no interference to reception and useful additional information — traffic and weather updates, news bulletins, music — to convince listeners of the new standard. With the green light for the German DAB+ restart, many believe this will speed up the digitisation and harmonisation of digital radio in Europe. Invoxia Launches New Generation of Desktop Phones After 135 years you’d think the plain old telephone deserves this type of refresh Invoxia wants to revolutionise the desktop phone. By selecting iOS devices as interfaces, invoxia has reconciled the world’s bestselling mobile solutions (iPod touch 3rd & 4 th generation, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2 and iPad) with the requirements of the desktop. “Existing devices are highly complex and, surprisingly, unable to provide levels of service comparable to what consumer mobile handsets, such as the iPhone, can offer,” says Serge Renouard, invoxia co-founder. The invoxia NVX 610 uses iOS devices as the control interface. It features eight wide-bandwidth speakers and 8 digital microphones. When used in ‘conference’ mode, it has the capacity to perform virtual placement of remote speakers in the room, as well as automatic local speaker localisation to create the feel of a physical conversation. According to the company, users benefit from In Vivo Acoustic technology, with its echo and background noise cancellation systems. While regular office phones might come with keys and features that no one understands, invoxia streamlines functionality to only the essential functions, such as a control to pick up incoming calls in speaker mode and adjust the With the iPhone as an interface and free apps from the App Store, using invoxia is intuitive. volume, and an easy two touch-sensitive "mute" and voicemail keys. For added fun, invoxia comes with a set of three smart holders (magnetic handset holders) that can be changed to suit your mood or style. It is made for iPod touch (3 rd & 4 th generation), iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2 and iPad. Hall 9 Stand 312 www.ifa-international.org IFA International • Wednesday 7 th September 2011 9
